It’s Time to Talk
About Fitspo.
BY MARY-HELEN CLARK
Fitspo was once something you might
find while scrolling through your social
media feed is now everywhere. Even
companies like Nike and lululemon
have used Fitspo in their marketing
campaigns. On January 1st, everyone
is posting “new year, new me” with a
bunch of memes about how sweat is
fat crying and how nothing tastes as
good as skinny feels. And we all sud-
denly feel super empowered, meet
our fitness goals and live happily (and
healthily) ever after. Right?
Not exactly.
For many, these inspirational memes
designed to empower us and make
us feel really good about ourselves
actually make us feel horrible. Shara
Vigeant, the owner of SVPT Fitness,
has found that some of her clients
have used the inspirational messages
and fit bodies they’re placed over to
motivate them, but it ends up deflating
when their progress doesn’t instantly
result in a taut body.
“A fitness journey is supposed to make
you feel good about yourself, not feel
worse,” Vigeant says. “And if you’re
comparing yourselves to these fitness
inspiration posts, you’re never going to
feel good about yourself.”Ideally, fitness inspiration was meant
to help you feel empowered. Howev-
er, in practice, not everyone is built the
same way. You may be working your
butt off, but rock hard abs or a size
three waist just isn’t in the cards for
you. The problem with Fitspo can be
that those just starting out on a fitness
journey are often already struggling
with self esteem and see the perfectly
airbrushed photos as the goal. When
they’re not reaching the goal right
away, it chips away at the parts of their
psyche that are already fragile and
can ruin their progress and motivation.“What I’m against is that these fit-
ness inspiration posts glorify body
types that are unrealistic for many,
and make us feel that we aren’t good
where we are right now,” Vigeant says.“They’re meant to be inspiration-
al, like ‘oh, you can do this’ but what
we’re finding is that a lot of people
are coming and feeling defeated be-
cause they’re seeing these images andwonder if that’s how they’re supposed
to look. They think because they don’t
look like that, then they aren’t fit, or
whatever. So we’re seeing a lot of low
self-esteem, setting goals that are un-
realistic, to reach that body. I’m seeing
so many clients coming in with body
image issues because of it.”However, not all fitspo is bad. Some of
it can be really encouraging and help
you stay motivated. To help figure out
the difference, Vigeant suggested the
following tips:- Make it something that is non-goal
specific, or attainable (like, I’m going
to be my best self today). - Make it realistic.
- Does it make me feel good? Not like
I have to look like the person in the
photo
At the end of the day, fitness and moti-
vation are supposed to make you feel
good about yourself. Sweat is not fat
crying. Pizza and bread taste as good
as skinny feels. But most importantly,
you are not working out to look like
Kendall Jenner or John Cena. You’re
doing it for you. So don’t let a photo
on Instagram make you feel like you
aren’t doing your best.